We’ve been watching the sky lately, gazing into the night with our eyes angled upward.
It’s been a pretty good show. Venus shining brightly in the western sky just after the sun goes down. Saturn and Mars in conjunction above her to the right and left, respectively. And for a while even Mercury lower on the horizon, barely twinkling in the rosy post-sunset glow.
I haven’t seen Mercury for a week or so, but a few days ago, as people around the world began their celebrations of Ramadan, a thin crescent Moon began to appear, gliding along her zodiacal path, making her presence known more and more with each passing night.
And last night, we went out to watch the Perseids. We took the dog and two chairs and sat out in the soccer fields behind the school and looked up at the heavens.
We’re not in the country, here. The light from downtown Austin bounced off thin wisps of haze, blotting out all but the brightest stars. And there were bright pink lamp posts not too far away along the highway and in the parking lots and around the track and by the bank. So the sky gazing was … sub-optimal.
Still, we saw one long streak that made us gasp. So we came home happy.
And we went out again tonight. It wasn’t in our plans, but the dog was telling us it was time. And so although we didn’t take the chairs this time, we hung around out there, lying out there in the middle of the soccer fields on the scratchy grass ignoring the distant lamp posts and the glowing wisps of almost-cloud. We hung around as the dog grew impatient and prodded us to go. We hung around and watched the sky.
I counted four. Trudy counted two. The dog counted none. And we all came home happy again.